LONDON , England -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A veteran of over 20 years of mountain climbing , Dave Bunting has been in some pretty tight scrapes .

Soldier mountaineer Dave Bunting on Mount Everest . His team tried to summit via the mountain 's notorious West Ridge in 2006 .

He and his climbing partner once watched in terror as a huge avalanche careered down a Himalayan mountainside straight for them . They were miraculously spared when the wall of snow parted on either side of the promontory where they were standing at a distance of just 50 meters .

On another occasion he spent an agonizing night hanging precariously over a 3,000-foot -LRB- 900 meter -RRB- drop during an electrical storm in the Alps . He estimates he was electrocuted `` half a dozen times '' during the course of the night .

Faced with the fearsome power of nature mountaineers like Bunting rely on one indispensable ally -- other mountaineers .

Teamwork is essential in climbing . The first successful ascent of Everest was as much about the bond of trust that existed between modest New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and his diminutive Sherpa , Tenzing Norgay , as their individual talents .

To illustrate this point , when Bunting -- a warrant officer in the British Army -- was compiling a team of soldiers to attempt an ascent of Everest 's notorious West Ridge the first quality he and the rest of the selection panel looked for was not climbing expertise , but compatibility .

`` A lot of people think that when you go and do something like that , you immediately look for all the best climbers in the army , '' he says . `` But what we based our selection process on , compatibility was first . ''

Of course , all team sports rely upon a strong dynamic between the individual members . But there can be few disciplines in which the stakes are as high as in mountain climbing , where your life often literally rests in someone else 's hands .

Bunting , 40 , led the expedition of 21 army mountaineers to Everest 's West Ridge two years ago .

It was a daunting undertaking . Of over 2,200 climbers who have made it to the top of the world 's tallest peak since it was first conquered , only 19 have done so via this route .

The ridge is rarely attempted because of its steepness and because its position leaves it exposed to high winds and the risk of avalanche .

The army 's summit attempt took three and half years in the planning and preparation and was the subject of a documentary , ` Everest : Man v Mountain . '

Much of this build-up involved establishing strong bonds between team members .

Practice climbs , social events and corporate-style teambuilding days were all employed to try to instil an atmosphere of mutual trust within the group . An essential factor on a mountain as significant as Everest , Bunting says .

`` You are massively wrapped up in emotions there because you 've spent three and a half years preparing for it , '' says Bunting , who now runs his own outdoor events company in the Bavarian Alps .

The prestige of getting to the top of Everest can sometimes blur a climber 's moral judgement , leading to acts of single-mindedness that border on the downright callous .

During the same season as Bunting 's army expedition , David Sharp , a 34-year-old British climber died of cold , exhaustion and lack of oxygen on his descent from the summit .

As details of Sharp 's death became public it emerged that 40 climbers had passed him , making no attempt to save the stricken climber as he lay stranded in the scant shelter of a rock alcove on the mountain 's northeast ridge .

The incident drew much soul-searching in the mountaineering world , with Sir Edmund Hillary complaining to New Zealand 's Otago Daily Times of the `` horrifying '' attitudes it revealed .

'' -LRB- On Everest -RRB- a lot of people are out for themselves completely , '' says Bunting .

He says this selfish streak is exacerbated by the fast turnover of commercial climbing expeditions , which often meet for the first time just a couple of weeks before a summit attempt , meaning there is little opportunity to build team morale .

By contrast , among Bunting 's army mountaineers the needs of the group were always put before personal ambition . He gives an example :

`` As we went for the summit there were a number of support teams , one of whose job it was to break trail from base camp right the way up to 7,500 metres , clambering through two foot of snow .

`` Each step you take at those altitudes is absolutely horrendous . There 's a clip in the documentary of one of the lads breaking trail , every step up to his knees in snow , and you hear him say : ` Well , this is our job so we 've got to get on with it . '

`` A brilliant demonstration of teamwork . ''

The biggest test of this togetherness came when Bunting was left the unenviable task of telling his team of ambitious young soldiers he was abandoning the summit attempt because of a high risk of avalanches .

`` Two or three of the guys were pretty pissed off , to be honest .

`` Instead of getting wrapped up in emotions -- because Everest is a very emotional place -- I looked at it in very black and white terms . I could n't risk sending my team up the mountain with that kind of real and present danger involved . ''

This clear-headed thinking meant his team braved one of the most dangerous climbs in the world and made it back down again , together .

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Army officer Dave Bunting recruited a team of 21 soldiers to summit Everest

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The 2006 attempt was via the mountain 's notoriously dangerous West Ridge

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They spent over three years preparing by building cameraderie and team spirit

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Bunting says personal ambition can sometimes get the better of climbers on Everest